Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Rat neurons growing in a microfluidic culture platform. Neuritic processes extend from the neurons in the somal compartment through the microgrooves toward the axonal compartment. Picture courtesy of Noo Li Jeon; artistic adaptation by Erin Boyle. Article p 599
According to the most recent estimates, the number of human genes is possibly—but not certainly—between 20,000 and 25,000. To contribute strategies to reduce this uncertainty, several groups working on computational gene prediction met recently at the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute with the goal to test and compare predictive methods of genome annotation.
Solution polymers such as dendrimers promise to provide valuable new tools for proteomics researchers using mass spectrometry (MS) to probe protein modifications.
Targeted genomic insertion will improve the qualitative and quantitative functional comparison of similar transgenes and provide suitable integration points for transgenes of applied interest.
The demand for faster, cheaper and more reliable assay systems is driving a new technical revolution in the form of microfluidics—the flow of tiny droplets through hair-thin tubing—with applications everywhere from industry to doctors' offices. Julie Clayton reports.
This method is used to extend partial cDNA clones by amplifying the 5′ sequences of the corresponding mRNAs1,2,3. The technique requires knowledge of only a small region of sequence within the partial cDNA clone. During PCR, the thermostable DNA polymerase is directed to the appropriate target RNA by a single primer derived from the region of known sequence; the second primer required for PCR is complementary to a general feature of the target—in the case of 5′ RACE, to a homopolymeric tail added (via terminal transferase) to the 3′ termini of cDNAs transcribed from a preparation of mRNA. This synthetic tail provides a primer-binding site upstream of the unknown 5′ sequence of the target mRNA. The products of the amplification reaction are cloned into a plasmid vector for sequencing and subsequent manipulation.
